Returning
by EternalRandomChick
Summary: A few months after that special solstice, M.K. is dying. The only remedy lies in the realm of the Jinn, but there is a price: M.K. must remain with the Jinn forever if she is to stay healthy.


**A/N: Wow, three new stories and two uploads in one day, I'm feeling really impressed with myself! If you wanna check out my other stuff, you are welcome to make your way over to my profile.**

**Epic really was EPIC! Sorry that it's taken me so long to get this up, it's been crazy since I just graduated high school. Enjoy, and please be gracious in your reviews.**

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_Finally!_ Nod thought as he raced on his hummingbird to the closest security camera of Bomba's. Mandrake might have been defeated on the summer solstice with the naming and coronation of Queen Marigold, but that didn't mean that his boggans would disappear overnight. The most recent raid on Rotwood had been especially taxing and Nod had had to take several weeks to recover from a particularly nasty rotting spear injury to his leg.

But at last, his leg had recovered enough for him to be able to take to the skies on his hummingbird again. Ronin had insisted that Nod was not yet well enough to return to his Leafman duties and had absolved him of service for another week, but Nod was glad for this week off, for it allowed him more time to chat with M.K., something he really hadn't had much time for before. Nod nearly let out a shout of excitement as he finally spotted one of her father's security cameras and quickly changed the direction of his bird. He waited on the branch directly in front of the camera. He was eager to talk with M.K. again; not so eager to explain the reason for his absence.

However, instead of the feisty woman that he had met (and, to be honest, fell in love with) on the summer solstice, he was instead greeted with the sight of her father. "Bomba?" he asked, surprised. "Where's M.K.?"

The professor sighed. "She's sick," he explained to the Leafman. "Her mother's family was always slightly more susceptible to cancer; it was actually how her mother died. When we found out M.K. had it, too, it was already too late; the cancer's spread. We estimate she has about a month left." Nod was confused, since his people didn't have the same illnesses that the "stompers" did, but Bomba quickly elaborated. "It's like the rot that was spreading after Queen Tara was killed. Except with M.K., her body won't be able to heal itself. In about a month's time; she'll be dead."

Nod felt his knees go weak, and he knew that it had nothing to do with his injury. He braced his arms on the tree branch in front of him, taking several deep breaths. "Could – could I see her? Is she at least strong enough to come and talk?"

Bomba gave a weak nod before leaving the view of the return camera he had set up. As soon as the eccentric professor was gone, Nod weakly sat back on the branch. He had only barely met M.K. and he didn't get much chance to speak to her, what with his duties as a Leafman. And now, he found his time to know her cut mercilessly short by a stomper version of Mandrake's rot. However, he wasn't left alone with his thoughts for long, as Bomba soon came back, gently carrying the first person to fully experience his world. But she now seemed a shadow of her former self; her hair had lost its shine, her skin was pasty, and her arms were even thinner than most of the twigs found in the forest.

She coughed weakly before turning her head towards the monitors. "Hey, Nod," she whispered hoarsely, reaching out and placing her finger on her monitor where his cheek was. "How's work?"

"The Leafmen have been doing some extra raids on Rotwood," he reported, getting back on his feet. "I just recovered from a nasty leg injury. But how are you? Your dad told me about your cancer."

"To be honest, I'm getting weaker by the day," she confessed. "I know that the estimate for my time left is a month, but I know better." She glanced at her father before sighing, "I think I have only a little more than a week left."

"Can anything be done?" he asked, though he suspected the answer.

M.K. shook her head, confirming Nod's worst fears. "No. At least, nothing in the stomper world will help; we've tried."

Something deep within Nod stirred up some hope at M.K.'s words. "I have an idea!" he declared, calling his hummingbird to him and jumping on. "I'll be back in a bit!"

Just his luck, he had to run into Ronin as soon as he landed back at Moonhaven. "You're flyin' too fast for someone who's still recovering, buddy." The general said as Nod dismounted. "I wasn't expecting you to stay in bed for this entire week, but I was hoping you wouldn't just fly around as fast as you usually do."

Under normal circumstances, Nod would have made some sort of retort about how Ronin was once again trying to take Nod's father's place again, but this time, he replied, "M.K.'s dying. Nothing that the stompers can do will save her. She has a little over a week left to live, but I was hoping that there might be something in our world that would heal her."

As he finished his explanation, the ferns covering the entrance to the queen's private gardens opened and Queen Marigold stepped out. She had certainly grown since the solstice and her coronation, both in height and in knowledge, since she spent every morning at Nim's tree, reading the scrolls. "Yes, Nod," she reassured the Leafman. Both general and rookie sank to their knees, but the queen gently waved away the formalities. "Relax," she laughed as the two soldiers rose. "It's only me!" She turned to fully face the younger warrior. "Yes, we will be able to heal the girl..." she trailed off, seemingly unwilling to finish her sentence.

"But?" Nod asked, sensing a catch.

"I must speak to M.K. and her father myself." Marigold said. She gestured to Ronin's hummingbird. "Ronin, if I may?"

He bowed his consent. "Of course, your majesty." She swung up gracefully, Nod quickly following her example. She led the way out of Moonhaven, but as soon as they were away, she allowed Nod to lead her to the nearest of Bomba's cameras.

The man was very quick to check his sensors; Nod had to give him that. Immediately after they had landed and dismounted, Bomba's face appeared in the viewscreen.

"I assume that you are M.K.'s father, correct?" Marigold asked. When he nodded, she continued. "I'm Marigold, new queen of the Jinn. We need to talk, and I mean talk face-to-face. It's about your daughter. We'll meet you at the edge of the woods." She once again mounted the hummingbird before adding, "And bring M.K. with you!"

When Marigold and Nod met Bomba, carrying a semi-conscious M.K., at the edge of the woods, M.K. looked even worse than she had when Nod had spoken with her earlier. It was almost like she was rotting away. Bomba had managed to put her helmet on her, and of course, he had his own on, so that they could see and understand the Jinn. Marigold quickly went to inspecting M.K., trying to see if she could find anything that the stompers had missed. "What have your healers diagnosed this as?" she asked.

"Cancer," Bomba replied.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," the queen said after a moment's inspection. "This isn't anything you stompers say it is." She tore M.K.'s sock down, revealing a clump of rot on her ankle. "It's rot! That's why nothing you've done has worked." She turned to Nod. "Mandrake or one of his boggans must have gotten lucky when you three raided Rotwood on the solstice." She turned back to Bomba. "The good news is that we will be able to heal her. However, in order for us to be able to heal her, she must return to our world. But this time, she must stay with us, for should she try to return, the infection will return and we won't be able to help her then."

"Can I – can I have a moment to say goodbye?" her father asked. Marigold and Nod both bowed their heads in assent before drawing a respectable distance away from the two stompers.

Bomba gently eased M.K.'s helmet off before lying her down on the forest floor. "Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"Some of it," his daughter replied, her voice steadily failing her. "Like the fact that it's not cancer, but rot infecting me."

"Exactly." Bomba told her. "And the Jinn can heal you, but, in order for them to do that, you've gotta go back to their world and stay there. We'll still be able to communicate on the sensors, and I'll come into the forest from time to time, but you have to stay in their world. The queen's here right now, so you don't have to risk further spread of the rot, but she told me that if you ever return to our world, the rot's gonna infect you again, but there won't be any stopping it for a second time in us stompers."

M.K. sighed wearily. "Okay. It won't be easy making the permanent transition, but I do want to live."

Bomba stood up and nodded in the direction of the two Jinn, giving the queen his permission to shrink his daughter permanently. Marigold closed her eyes, focused her magic, and once again, brought M.K. into the world of the Jinn. The transformation was not like it was on the solstice, violent with a strong wind as M.K. resisted the change, but a gentle breeze as she left the stomper world and became a permanent resident of the realm of the Jinn.

Nod gently picked up M.K.'s weak body and carried her to his hummingbird, impatiently waiting for his queen as she once again reassured Bomba that M.K. would be safe and well-cared-for in their world. "Hold on just a little longer," he whispered, giving her a kiss of encouragement. Even though he could tell that Marigold, too, was impatient to get back to Moonhaven, he was still incredibly worried for the life of the no-longer-stomper. Finally, Marigold turned back and mounted her borrowed hummingbird, giving the signal to fly back.

Upon landing, healers quickly took M.K. with them, declaring all the way that she was only mere hours away from being beyond their help, which did NOT help Nod's nerves. He turned away to begin the anxious period of waiting, but he turned directly into the world's most annoying slug: Mub.

"Nod, my flat-faced friend," Mub began. "I believe I have given you several warnings concerning the universal code that says that I saw her first. And from what I just saw, you were not respecting the code. Now, I really didn't want to have to do this..."

"She's dying, so will you just leave it alone for a few days!" Nod exploded. "And I think that there's another code that says that it's her choice, so will you please just leave me alone about this!"

Mub only caught the first two words. "Wait, she's dying?"

"Yes." Nod confirmed, grateful that at least something he said had gotten the slug's attention. "That's why she's here, and she's here for good now, so you'll have plenty of time to annoy me about this later." He stormed off, determined to stay with M.K. and not let Mub bother him.

Weeks passed, M.K. healed quickly, and she was clearly showing more signs of romantic affections towards Nod rather than Mub. The slug wasn't happy about this turn of events, and for a long time after M.K. made her choice clear, Mub was sure to try to challenge Nod for M.K.'s affections and only stopped after M.K. gave him a rather stern talking-to, much to Nod's pleasure and relief. She still made frequent contacts with her father, but those dropped in number after she joined the ranks of the Leafmen, and the calls became even more infrequent after she and Nod married.

"So, if there was one thing in your life that you would change, what would it be?" Nod asked one evening years later as they rode a deer towards the sunset, like they had on that fateful solstice.

"Thinking my dad was crazy when I first moved back in with him all those years ago." She answered after a moment of thought. "Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing; not even getting infected with that rot. If I changed anything else, I don't think we'd be here right now. And I'm quite content with the way things are." She finished her statement with a playful grin and leaned over, wrapping her arms around his waist and gently pressing her lips to his.

Nod felt that he quite agreed.


End file.
